Quick Black Bear Facts

Folklore: Perhaps no other animals have so excited
the human imagination as bears. References to bears are found in ancient and
modern literature, folk songs, legends, mythology, children stories, and
cartoons. Bears are among the first animals that children learn to recognize.
Bear folklore is confusing because it is based on caricatures, with Teddy Bears
and the kindly Smoky on one hand and ferocious magazine cover drawings on the
other. Dominant themes of our folklore are fear of the unknown and man
against nature, and bears have traditionally been portrayed as the villains to
support those themes, unfairly demonizing them to the public. A problem for
black bears is that literature about bears often does not separate black bears
from grizzly bears.

Black Bear Range

Historical Rangea

1995 Rangeb

Black bears historically ranged over most of the forested regions of North America, including all Canadian provinces, Alaska, all states in the conterminous United States, and significant portions of northern Mexico (Hall 1981). Their current distribution is restricted to relatively undisturbed forested regions (Pelton 1982; Pelton et al. 1994).

Typical Year for Black Bears

January: The full moon in January is sometimes called the ‘bear moon'. Black bear cubs are generally born in January. The mother bear licks them clean, keeps them warm and moves into positions to make it easier for them to nurse.